Lions Comeback Falls Short in 28-21 Loss to Houston

Despite almost blowing a 21-0 lead to the hapless Detroit Lions, the Houston Texans showed enough on Sunday at home to earn their second win of the season, outlasting Detroit 28-21. The Texans jumped on Detroit to go up 21-0 after two first quarter scores and then a Steve Slaton TD early in the second quarter to build the three TD lead.

Detroit, playing their second consecutive competitive game, got back into the contest with a pair of Jason Hanson field goals and two TD’s. They moved to 28-21 with 4:10 left, but Houston was able to run off four minutes of the clock to keep the Lions offense off the field and preserve the win. Houston moves to 2-4, while the Lions fall to 0-6.

Matt Schaub was 26-for-31 for the Texans, throwing for 267 yards against a poor Lions defnese and two touchdowns with a QB rating of 124.1. Slaton ran for 80 yards on 17 carries, and Ahman Green ran for 62 yards on 17 carries, and each of the big two backs for the Texans had a score. Andre Johson was on fire again for Houston, catching 11 passes for 141 yards. Overall Houston had 404 yards of offense, and held the ball for 40:04 while Detroit had it for just 19:56.

The Lions were led by QB Dan Orlovsky, who was 12-for-25 for 265 yards with a TD. He didn’t make any killer mistakes like last week running out of the end zone vs the Vikings, but didn’t have a lot of time on the field to do much. The Lions did run for 4.1 yards per carry, but just 77 yards on 19 carries, with Kevin Smith rushing for 61 yards on 10 carries with a score.